


Freudian Slipstiches

by Stuart



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Emotionally Incompetent Pirates, Fluff, Freudian Slips, Mutual Pining, Tailor OC, What's said in the workroom stays in the workroom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-17 05:50:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13070448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stuart/pseuds/Stuart
Summary: Yondu was due for a new jacket... and accidentally got a confidant as well





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, so sorry if its crap.
> 
> If you have any thoughts on it, I'd be grateful to hear them!

The seams were coming loose again. Yondu sniffed and tugged at the loosening form of his jacket before tossing his hand to his side and rolled his eyes. Every single time he went on a job he came back with some new clothing mishap. He stood, nearly knocking a half empty whiskey bottle from his desk. It wobbled before being stabilized by the 500 other things on the two foot by four foot surface.

He was tired, slightly tipsy, and just ready to sleep. But his jacket was loosening up. He swung his arms as he whistled softly, letting the arrow dance to the tune, lazily looping with long red strokes. Ah look, a tear in the sleeve. Yondu grunted and rubbed at the spot. The knife nicked him, but totally slashed the leather. Just great.

Yondu’s boots shuffled on the floor, the tips occasionally slipping into holes in the grates. He yawned as he stumbled. The halls passed like through cloth as his eyes dipped. His muscles were beginning to ache already, and he had just gotten back.

“Cap’n!” a voice called. Yondu snarled to himself and turned his head, more so tilting it, to see the approaching figure. The tilt probably looked intimidating with the done red eyes, but Yondu really was just too damn tired to lift his head proper.

In his slowed thoughts, Yondu recognized the mohawk of his first mate. Kraglin walked steadily, boots hitting the ground with solid thuds.

“Krag,” Yondu replied as he began noticing the amount of time it had taken to even comprehend someone was approaching. He should be in bed.

“I ‘ave a full recording of today’s haul. Wes got bout 5,000 units worth of some weird cloth from… In-Indie-ah? Some place on Terra. Anyways, 200 uni…” Kraglin began droning. Numbers and products sifted past Yondu’s consciousness. He kinda liked it. Gave him a chance to just listen to the lilting of the first mate’s voice, watching the movements of his lips wandering the Xandarian language but sounding coming to Yondu in the automated whistles of the translator Centaurian. Kinda thought about kissing ‘em as they bobbed.

“An’ bout 10 of them trinkets you like,” Kraglin concluded, drawing his eyes up from the monitor under his nose. The captain wasn’t watching his eyes again. Kraglin puffed and waited for the captain to realize the movement stopped. It was getting pretty tedious, doing this everytime the captain was tired or drunk. And honestly, when was he not at least a little of each. Kraglin ignored the mental reminder of who typically supplied the captain’s alcohol, or kept the captain busy with “borin’ crap I hired yuh tuh do for me”.

It had been a full 30 seconds of silence before a blushing Kraglin went with plan B. He drew a shiny jem out of his pocket and waved it in front of his face, lifting it up to to captain’s eyes to bring him back.

“So, we’re off t’ Knowhere, sell what we got, then grab some supplies and head off to the next job,” Kraglin finished. Yondu nodded, pushing down his eyebrows to look all studious like. Kraglin just huffed and clipped the monitor to his belt and crossed his arms. He frowned at the slashed sleeve on Yondu’s jacket.

“Ya got cut?” he asked. Yondu followed his gaze to the arm and lifted it. The fabric was stiff enough to remain sleeve like, but still showed the slight nick under the edge of it.

“Tis but a scratch,” Yondu muttered, clearing his throat and turning indigo with a blush. “I’m goin’ to Tailor’s tuh get it fixed.”

“You’re sleeve, I hope,” Kraglin asked, frowning further.

“Tha’s what I said,” Yondu whined and stumbled around Kraglin, intentionally catching his toes on his heels and leaning on the taller man, then attempted to saunter off to the other side of the ship.

 

It was at that point that he should have realized it would have been better to just sleep. But Yondu wandered on, boots scraping the ground and eyes full of Kraglin’s, always looking down with the electric light reflecting off them like moonlight. Yondu may or may not have walked into a few walls thinking they were leading to the first mate.

 

* * *

 

It had been a year or so since Kraglin got promoted, and after the first six months kid- wait, not a kid anymore- stopped acting so careful of his position. He finally unwounded when the captain killed a sniper with a sight on Kraglin. Yondu got a fresh scar from leaving his own attackers to protect Krag, and later, sitting by the captain in the med wing, he accepted that Yondu actually wanted him to be the first mate.

Since then, it was all drinking and robbing for the pair, each trip more successful than the last. At least, Yondu called them successful. Kraglin called them “enabling the captain’s hoarding issues”. Half the haul was typically comprised of jems and trinkets. Then, of course, the captain punched anyone who attempted to get into a “thing” with Kraglin, so the younger man backed off on the drinking together.

Yondu’s second view of Kraglin’s eyes which came to mind were typically exasperated. It almost always was after Yondu punched some person at a bar.

 

* * *

 

Yondu should have been in bed, and he knew it. At the very least, it was where he really wanted to be. But his jacket, poor thing. He pet at it before calling himself out and pushing forward.

The tailor, a Hraxian boy named Snak, was only 15 but pretty skillful. He had stowed away on the _Eclector_ when he was 12, getting away from the life of a sweatshop on some backwater factory planet. When the crew found him, they put him to work a the tailor and soon became one of the more popular people on board, since he was the one making all the replacement socks and patching underwear.

He had his own mini wing of four rooms: a bedroom, a bathroom, a storage closet, and a workroom.

Snak was smart. Snak was in bed.

Snak was smart. When the captain started pounding on his door, he got out of bed pretty quick and led Yondu, snarling and tired, to the workroom.

“Seams gettin’ loose,” Yondu grumbled and sat down a little podium in the center of the room.

“Looks like the sleeve’s pretty much shot, too,” Snak remarked, and grabbed a leather patch.

“It were stabbed, not shot,” Yondu corrected and yawmed. Snak bent down next to the captain and placed the patch over the torn up area. It just about covered it.

“I’m gonna need the jacket for a bit tuh get it fixed up,” Snak remarked and stood. He placed the patch on a pile labeled Captain’s Clothes.

“But I’mma need it for the next job,” Yondu whined and picked at the fraying material with bored blue fingers. It was falling away kinda funny. He twisted his head closer to investigate it, remembering he was going to have to take it off. He’d like for Kraglin to take it off, though. His ears when indigo as he pictured it.

“What is the next one, anyway?” Snak asked as he sifted through a tangled ball of thick embroidery floss. “And when?” He did his best to ignore the captain blushing more profusely than he realized, bent over some torn leather.

“Some gettin’ into some fancy club and grabbin’ this thing. Usual deal. Fancy stone on fancy woman’s finger gonna be on mine.” _Or Kraglin’s_ , Yondu thought. Or would that be to fast? Maybe start with actually talking to him about something other than work when as sober as he could be. Yondu scratched at his beard.

“Fancy gig, huh?” Snak said. “Might need something bit fewer scraggles.”

“But I like Kraggles,” Yondu huffed.

“Kraggles?” Snak asked, turning. If it was possible, Yondu turned even more purple, eyes wide and suddenly wide awake.

“Typo,” Yondu snarled, practically ripped the jacket off and threw it at Snak as a distraction while he bolted to the door.

“Cap’n, we ain’t typing,” Snak contradicted. Yondu turned and whistled, arrow darting to between Snak’s eyes. Kid nearly went cross-eyed watching it as it hovered threateningly.

“You heard nothing!” Yondu growled and stormed out into the hall sans jacket.

“I don’t even know what Kraggles are!” Snak yelled after him before shrugging, closing the door, and grabbing a seam ripper to begin working on the jacket’s seams.

  



	2. Defining Kraggles

The fancy gig did, in fact, require something with a bit fewer scraggles. The captain had looked a bit odd in a clean looking jacket with less patches and more prestige. But it was all in good fun, and quite frankly Kraglin didn’t think the captain had ever endured so many teasing comments in one fell swoop. 

“Lookin’ good, Cap’n!” a voice called from a crowed. Someone wolf whistled. The lines of the jacket were same as they usually were, making Yondu’s figure seem slimmer than it was. The simplicity of the rich red leather looked like fresh snow covering an exploded mine: still crisp and fresh and hiding the fact that it was probably pretty grotesque. He seemed like a glass of milk walking through rows of of bubbling beers spilling over the rims.

Snak had added a hat to the jacket. It was a fedora, since what else would fit? The red and black pinstripes covered the small headpiece in Yondu’s head. This was supposed to be undercover anyway.

Yondu glared out at the calls from the crew as he walked past, head tilted slightly. The arrow rested firmly against his leg, very much present in his mind as someone else wolf whistled. He was felt like wolf whistling back. He learned where the arrow aimed if he did and thought it fitting to respond in such a way.

The m-ship he was taking down sat in the hanger. Kraglin was leaning against it, scrolling through messages on his monitor. He glanced up as the captain approached, heavy boots replaced with dress shoes which snapped to the ground with sharp clicks. 

“Cap’n,” Kraglin croaked. His face almost immediately was red as Yondu walked forward. “Just a few things before ya head-” he swallowed. “Head off, that is,”

“Lay it on me,” Yondu grumbled. The hat shadowed the purple his face was turning as Kraglin stumbled over his words.   
“Her name is Yon- um, it’s Yellema, and she’s gonna be wearing a dress kinda like this-” he flashed a picture of a yellow dress before pulling the picture back - “and she’s gonna be, um, she’ll be by the food since she likes, likes food a, um, ah lot…”

Yondu faded out the words as they jumbled clumsily from Kraglin’s now trembling lips. He really didn’t want to stare, and couldn’t really because the first mate would not stop looking at him, eyes tracing the hat down to the jacket and down to the boots. 

“Anyways, cap’n,” Kraglin stumbled, “good luck.”

“Thanks,” Yondu replied and clasped Kraglin on a slightly trembling, and annoyingly higher shoulder. 

“Cap’n,” a young voice called trailed by running feet. Yondu turned from Kraglin and the ship. “I got you some false teeth.” Snak reached the two, panting slightly and held up what had been a retainer case. Inside was a thin retainer like mouthpiece which made the captain’s mostly metal and sharpened teeth look civilized. He put them in and flashed a smile at Kraglin.

“Kinda funny tuh see yuh without so many scraggles, cap’n,” Kraglin said shakily and pressed a thin smile against the rising blood pressure not in his face.

“Don’t get used tuh it, Kraggles,” Yondu said and turned to approach the descending stairs into the ship. He froze, then swirled around to face Snak who was turning a nearly perfectly tomato red.

“I want thu other jacket replaced. I’ll meet with yuh later.” He flashed the arrow, slight red glowing filling the shadows between the jacket and leg, then spun off to climb the steps and leave before Kraglin could question anything.

Snak just nodded, nearly paralyzed, as the captain fled his watching gaze. 

_ He likes Kraglin _ , Snak thought and grew even redder before turning and fleeing before Kraglin could ask  _ him  _ what was going on. It wasn’t like the kid even knew. 

 

~~~

 

The mission went well, all things considered. Sure, the jacket got a bit dirtied up with the bloody exit, but that was to be expected. The false teeth got lost somehow or another, probably when Yondu got punched in the face by a guard, who promptly got an arrow to the face. But that was really the only issue, clothing wise.

Yondu came back in one piece as well, though he hadn’t expected the target to recognize him. This gala was supposed to be super secluded, just two planets represented and one hadn’t even gotten to space at all. It took him a while to recognize her, but eventually remembered the trip he had brought the crew on to the planet. She had been in a pub with Kraglin. That, at least, explained why her first reaction was to sock Yondu in the blue face. Repaying the favor or something.

Anyway, not only did Yondu have the imprint of the ring on his face, he also had the ring and its grey blue shimmer. 

It was worth a good 10,000 units on the open market but that only made it too good to sell. Besides, it was the same color as Yondu’s favorite trinket. Nice how things were all matchy matchy: The ring, the trinket, and Kraglin’s eyes.

Yondu jerked his head up from his near nap.  _ That _ was uncalled for. No, he wasn’t about to go making his favorite color the color of his first mate’s eyes. That was a no. 

The m-ship settled to the docking point gently. The pilot was pretty good. Yondu was considering giving him a raise, maybe even a promotion. 

The stairs descended and Yondu stood. He had taken his shoes off at some point, but Yondu quite frankly could not be bothered to put them back on. So he bounced down the steps, ring on smallest finger, jacket streaked with pale blue blood, silver teeth gleaming in the light of the hanger. Kraglin was waiting to help dock the ship.

“Cap’n,” he said with a curt nod.

“Kraglin,” Yondu replied, nodding back. He resisted the urge to glance at the ring and confirm its coloring. “I’m keepin’ thu ring.”

Kraglin nodded and glanced at it, slightly hidden by the jacket as it cut in front of Yondu’s hand. Yondu lifted the hand and displayed the ring more clearly.

“Same color as my favorite trinket!” he said proudly. Then, as always, unexpected panic.  _ Shit what if he notices? _ Yondu suddenly felt his heart race.  _ I mentioned color! What if he realized they’re both the color of- _

“Cap’n,” Snak said, coming up from the hallway. “You got the teeth?”

“Nah, they got punched out,” Yondu said, dropping his hand. It landed on a patch of blood which he wiped off on a clean patch higher up on his ribs. “Jacket held together great.”

“Did the outfit give you away?” Snak asked, suddenly concerned. “I thought it held together. You weren’t supposed tuh be noticed.” He began ringing his hands. “They make you take off your hat or somethin’? Shoulda given you something other than a hat…”

“Nah, costume held up great, target knew me from something else,” Yondu muttered and found himself grateful for the hat shading the purple of his cheeks. 

“What she know yuh from?” Kraglin asked. “Thought it was some isolated thing.”

“I, uh, well…” Yondu started.

“Ah. Of course,” Kraglin grumbled and turned with his eyes dropped to the ground.

“Punched ‘er in a pub this one time,” Yondu finished. Kraglin turned.

“Punched ‘er?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Yondu said.

“When did that happen?” Kraglin asked.

“‘Bout five, six months ago…”

Kraglin nodded. “ _That_ pub.” 

“Yeah…”

Snak cleared his throat, his neck tired of glancing between the two now heavily blushing men. 

“Cap’n?” he asked.

“Yeah?” Yondu said and turned from Kraglin, scratching at his neck before fiddling furiously with the ring.

“You free for that new jacket? Need measurements,” Snak said. 

“Sure.” They walked off, Yondu practically dragging the kid as he rushed from Kraglin’s worried gaze.


	3. Recalculating

Yondu didn’t say a word for the first few minutes, but the silence drew it out for hours.

He had stripped down to his lowest layer: a long sleeve shift with some waffle pattern that kept him unnaturally warm, and a pair of pants which he denied were leggings. Snak was a tailor. Snak knew leggings when he saw them.

Snak worked the measuring tape under Yondu’s arms, around his neck, from collarbone to hip. Few people got anything around the captain’s neck. Yet another reason the crew respected their teenage tailor. 

Only the sound of the measuring tape snapping about from measurement to measurement, and the intervening scratches of pencil to record them, filled the quiet of the workroom. 

“So,” Yondu eventually grunted.

Snak didn’t dare reply.

“Yuh werk it out yet, kid?” Yondu snarled as Snak gently directed his arms out wide for a wingspan. 

“Yes’sir,” Snak said rushidly.

“An’?” 

“And nothing, Cap’n,” Snak swallowed against the dry of his throat and felt the blood rising to his face. “Ain’t my life affected by this.”

“If you dare tell anyone,” Yondu started, then whistled to finish his sentence.

“Yes’sir,” Snak replied and kept measuring as though the arrow were not boring into the back of his neck with a fiery red gaze. 

It went silent again.

“Cap’n?” Snak asked softly. His voice barely came out as he  tried to figure out what words to use next. Yondu just grunted.

“Why did Kraglin remember some particular pub after you said you punch some chick there?” His voice wavered but he did his best to keep the sentence moving. Somehow it worked.

Yondu grunted again. Snak kept to measuring.

“He’d ben chattin’ her up ‘fore I socked her,” he eventually muttered.

“You punched the chick he’d been talkin’ to?” Snak reiterated. “Cuz he’d been talking to her?” 

“Yeah.”

Snak kept measuring. At this point he was running out of things to measure and ended up getting creative to give himself more time.

“I’m gonna put a pocket for the arrow under the right front tail, I think,” Snak muttered, sketching the pouch into the former design. “I’m gonna need you to hang around and help me measure it’s placement out.” Yondu strugged. 

“I’m free,” he said as he picked at a scab already forming by his lip. The ring had made a bit more than an impression, as it turned out. No big deal. It would be healed in no time anyway.

“Any special requests?” Snak asked as he picked put the tape again and turned to face the arrow which now was hovering, still, but less menacingly and more just sitting where it was. Snak took down the length, width, and the hight as Yondu let himself sit on the podium he’d been standing on during the leg length measuring.

“Maybe…” Yondu started, then shook his head. “Nah, nothin’ special. Tha’ arrow holster gonna be special enough as is.”

“Well, if you have something you’d like tuh see, I can put it in,” Snak said, now scavenging for the right piece of red leather. He’d put it back here somewhere...

Yondu blushed at the words “like tuh see”, pushing away thoughts of Kraglin’s eyes, way closer than he’d ever seen them except once. And that had been during sparring practices. 

“Maybe…” He started again. Shook his head again, and opened his mouth to change the subject, again, but instead found himself saying “put somethin’ o this color in it.” Snak turned and saw the captain thrusting his hand upwards, ring displayed in the electric lights. Yondu’s head was dropped with no chance of eye contact. 

“Sure thing, Cap’n” Snak replied, eyeing the color of the stone more closely. He tried to ignore the similarity of it to the first mate’s eyes, but it was pretty damn obvious after all he’d recently learned. 

“Why’d I tell you?” Yondu grumbled as Snak began sketching spits for the blue embellishment. 

“Think it was uh Freudian slip or summin’ like tha’,” Snak muttered as he took up pins and a pattern prep cloth. 

“Uh what now?” Yondu asked, twisting round to watch the kid from under an incredulous raised eyebrow. Snak just had the captain stand and put on the arrow holster. He began measuring the placement of it as he spoke.

“Some terran doctor named Freud studied minds came up with a theory that people accident’ly say things they didn’t intend if they're tired or not thinkin’ straight. They call ‘em Freudian slips after 'im.” He accidentally jabbed the captain’s arm with a pin as he worked, but neither flinched. After a while, everyone was used to getting pricked at least once in the workroom. Yet another reason to respect Snak.

Yondu rubbed at his arm slightly as Snak moved on the pinning around the waist. Sure his measuring systems weren’t always conventional, but they worked for him.

“Sounds ‘bout right,” Yondu nodded. 

“Sir…” Snak began, then cut off.

“Yuh playin’ dis game and I pull yer tounge tuh get yuh tuh spit it,” Yondu snuffed and twisted, right into the tip of a pin. 

“How duh yuh think…” Snak said before losing his nerve and trailing off, catching a pin in his mouth for an excuse.

“Boy, you think I’m kiddin’?” Yondu snarled and brought the arrow to Snak’s throat with a vicious whistle.

“You ain’t kiddin’, Cap’n,” Snak gasped, then swallowed as Yondu bore his red gaze through him like lasers. “You’s just more likely to run me through if I tell yuh what I was gonna say.” 

“So either way, yuh gunna die,” Yondu said with a hint of a snarl on his lips, drawing them back to reveal the points of his unnaturally sharp metal teeth. “So. Spit. It.” He pressed his teeth together as he seethed. Snak could see the jaw muscles working as they flexed in the back of his cheeks. Snak held his breath.

“Yuh think maybe Kraglin likes yuh back?” Snak said in a rush. 

Yondu accidently dropped the arrow. It wasn’t even that he intended to react. But his mind flooded with white noise and the arrow fell as all connection to it was lost.

“Wh-” he started before his breath failed him, forcing him to start again. “What?”

Snak watched with wide eyes as the captain held in shock for five seconds. Then it passed and the arrow was up from the ground and at Snak’s throat again.

“If yuh’s lyin’ ‘bout this I’mma have yuh for it,” Yondu threatened, the control back in his expression, though not the in the purple of his face. Snak didn’t dare reply.

Eventually the captain stormed off, only after Snak had marked the patterns on the measuring cloth and carefully removed all the pins. Yondu grumbled the entire time, but let Snak do his job despite the violent shade of indigo his face was set as. 

Snak sat and let out a sigh, nearly collapsing into his chair as he made panel plans from the cloth. That was a close one...


	4. Favorite Colors

“Yer probaly wrong, yah know,” Yondu grumbled as he walked into the workroom. He was five minutes early to a preliminary fitting to confirm the sizing. But a thin someone else was still on the podium in nothing but a baggy tee-shirt and loose boxers, back turned, arms stretched out to the sides lifting the hem of the shirt to just above the low riding waist band of the boxers. Yondu’s heart nearly choked him. 

Kraglin turned when he heard the captain’s voice, almost instantly blushing harder than Yondu, who was violet at that point, passing indigo in seconds. He wondered how he still had that much blood in his face and not in his crotch which was luckily covered by the baggy jacket he had closed against the cold. Some idiot had left the air conditioner on, but now Yondu was thanking the halfwit with all his heart. 

“Cap’n,” Kraglin croaked, his hands dropping to in front of himself in an attempt to cover what he could. It didn’t really help. His eyes were wide with shock and something akin to fear. Yondu was having trouble making eye contact, but there wasn’t much else to look at so he ended up looking everywhere but at Kraglin. 

Snak was standing to the side with pins between his lips trying desperately to not laugh or facepalm, which ever impulse won out first. The two were more uncomfortable than anything he’d ever seen, and he’d seen some uncomfortable stuff….

“Imma- I’m gonna-” Yondu stammered, now staring pointedly at the base of the podium. His peripheral was still drawing at him, so he turned and rushed out of the room. 

Kraglin said nothing but stared at the empty doorway which Yondu neglected to shut in his escape. Snak hardly breathed as Kraglin just stood there, red as ever. 

This was going to be a day…

 

* * *

 

Yondu had the air of defeat about him when he walked in ten minutes later. He had sent a message over the coms to make sure Kraglin had left before he drew himself from some hiding place and walked to the workroom again. His ears were perpetually purple as he passed crew members. No one really could tell why the captain hid his face as he passed.

“We do not speak of this,” he snarled, articulating his proper grammar, emphasis on every single pronunciation.

“Of course, Cap’n,” Snak said and turned to the table against the left wall. The sewing machine was off, but some shirt sleeve was still set to be sewn once he got the chance. 

Yondu shrugged off his jacket and tossed it to the side. He turned to the podium and paused before allowing himself to avert his gaze and step onto it.

Snak picked up an in-progress jacket held together, at the moment, by tape and pins. He carried it to the captain who glanced around nervously as though someone might walk in and see him, sense where his thoughts kept dragging him to despite his best efforts. He even began counting tiles on the ground to keep his mind from wandering.

“If it makes yah feel better, Cap’n,” Snak said as he handed the jacket to Yondu, “Kraglin was ‘bout as embarrassed as yuh were.” Yondu pulled the jacket on carefully with a huff.

“So he knows Ah like ‘im and got all uncomfortable like when I saw ‘im like that.”

“Nah, sir. Seemed more than that,” Snak said and began stalking around the captain’s back, eyeing how any seams pulled. None were, really, which was nice. But still, Yondu needed to talk some, and wouldn’t if he left. Snak new the man’s thoughts on public conversations, and they were for business only. So he started taking out pins, poking at the leather panels a bit, and put them back exactly where they’d been a moment ago. 

“Doubt it, kid,” Yondu grumbled. 

“Yah know, yah never actually told me yah like tha firs’ mate,” Snak said through a pin between his lips. “Yah just said yah like Kraggles, then called Kraglin that when I was standin’ near yah. Plus yah go purple ‘round ‘im. It wasn’t too hard tah put two and two tugether. Kraglin ain’t said a thing yet, but neither did yah when I realized.”

Yondu pulled a face but didn’t say anything.

“It ain’t likely,” he muttered as Snak wandered around him. “No use puttin’ hope intah this.”

“Now that ain’t know way to think, Cap’n!” Snak said as he repinned a spot between the captain’s shoulder blades. The pin fell right into the old holes and Snak rubbed off the material for good measure. “There’s less uh chance if yah do nothin’, or don’t try.”

Yondu just grunted. 

“I could ask ‘im some leadin’ questions next time I measure ‘im, if you’d like,” Snak offered.

“No,” Yondu snapped. He turned suddenly and glared at Snak, bending down to get to eye level. Snak had hardly a second to regain his composure as the captain spun and snarled. No arrow this time, but that didn’t mean Snak’s life wasn’t in danger. He could feel the blood rising in the captain’s face, flush with a pissed off purple and veins flexing about as much as his fists. Yondu’s blue face had grown incredibly close until Snak could clearly mark the rim of grey around the blood red of the irises and count the blood vessels curling through the eyes. The blue surrounding shimmered slightly with sweat.

“He wouldn’t realize I’d be talkin’ for yah, sir,” Snak promised, his breath caught in his throat and raising his hands in defense. 

Yondu stayed close but swallowed, eyes losing their glare for a second.

He eventually spoke: “If I catch word that he know summin’ bout what I fe- I think o’ ‘im…”

“I know, Cap’n,” Snak said. 

Yondu stood up.

“Yah got any more work tuh be doin’ on this here jacket?” he asked, swishing the tails slightly to feel them fall against his legs. 

“Could, if yah like,” Snak said.

“Yah gunna start sewin’ it up soon?” he asked and glanced down at the buckles laying on the table. 

“If yah got no other thing for me tah do with it…” Snak said, turning to face the table. “I’m gonna paint the buckles soon, too.”

“Paint ‘em?” Yondu sounded startled, suddenly reminded of that request he had made. That color…

“Well, yah asked for some uh tha-”

“I know what I asked,” he snarled, then came up to them. “Yah got the paint yet?”

“Yeah, it’s in storage. Yah wanna see it?” Snak twisted his head to look at the captain who was turning slightly purple again.

“Sure,” he muttered and began fingering at the ring on his pinky. He really needed the band expanded to fit his ring finger…

Snak left the room through a side door into the closet and came back with a few cans of spray paint and a buckle already covered in the color.

“This is what’ll look like,” Snak said and handed the buckle to the captain who toyed with it a bit. But then his hands stilled and just let the color soak into his eyes. It was exactly the shade, shadows hitting it the way it fell onto Kraglin's...

“Looks perfect,” he said in hardly more than a whisper. “Just the righ’ color. Mah favorite…”

Snak was turning red again. Yondu looked up suddenly, now indigo again and threw the buckle none to nicely back to the desk.

“Yah know-” he began, pointing a slightly shaky finger at Snak.

“I’m well aware, Cap’n,” he said with the hints of a smile coming to the corner of his lips. It was getting harder to stop them the more obvious the two became.

“Even got my question lined up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is getting longer than I anticipated, but hey, not the end of the world!
> 
> Thanks for the comments and kudos! You guys are great!


	5. A Technically Broken Promise

Kraglin was really not into talking during his fitting sessions. But two weeks of the captain and first mate dashing away from one another at any awkward meeting made Snak determined to get _something_ out of this fitting. He put Kraglin’s new jumpsuit ahead of Yondu’s jacket in importance. The panels were set in half the time it normally took Snak to cut them out, and then onto the mannequin in a lunch break.

Kraglin paced as Snak did some finishing touches on the pins to keep them from slipping. The new thin leather slid over Kraglin’s long johns slickly. He hardly needed to wiggle into it, and it fit well. Damn. That meant minimal time. Again. Snak was too good at this job for his own (technically the captain and first mate’s) good.

“Any requests fo’ the jumpsuit?” Snak asked as he walked around Kraglin who was standing in the suit comfortably despite it not actually being sewn together yet.

“Nah, this’ll do great, if yah ask meh,” Kraglin said, turning his head over to look down the back of it. Snak handed him a grimy hand mirror and Kraglin set to work looking over the fit.

“Not even a favorite color somewhere innit?” Snak asked curiously.

“Don’t think sharp blues or purples really go wid the red, yah know?” he said with a chuckle, gazing into the mirror.

“Well, some blues match red,” Snak contradicted. “Or are you’s sayin’ the captain’s eyes don’t fit?”

Kraglin’s head snapped up, almost pulling a pin out of its spot. Snak winced.

“Cap’n’s eyes fit great! Why, few red eyes can managed tuh look tha’ good!” Kraglin paused, and then his eyes widened.

“If yah tell ‘im I said tha’!” he gasped with a sudden look of fear flashing across his face. “He’d do me in if ‘e ‘eard I’m inta him! Doesn’t do tuh have a first mate and cap’n be tugether. He’s always been ‘gainst captain crew relationships. If he hears o’ this he’ll drop me on some odd planet with no hope o’ escape an’ I’ll be stuck there wid dese people I’ll never ‘ave heard of and they’ll kill me cuz I ain’t look like ‘em or they know Ravagers or summin’ like that an’ I’ll die, alone, far from the ship and far from....” He had begun pacing while Snak watched in shock.

“I never said you was into ‘im, you just said his eyes didn’t look like crap, _then_ said yah like ‘im,” Snak said.

Kraglin stared, then collapsed his head into his hands.

“I’m done fo’,” he muttered and began pacing even more, the jumpsuit he was still wearing slipping around.

“Are yah gunna tell ‘im?” Kraglin asked. His voice pitched on the side of begging.

“Only if ‘e asks,” Snak said. Kraglin took a shaky breath. “Which, who knows if ‘e ever will!”

“He really don’t seem interested in me…” Kraglin glanced at the door, which was shut. Still, he had to check with a sudden wash of paranoia. Here he was, talking about his crush on his captain with a 15 year old tailor in the middle of a fitting session. Not exactly something to get walked in on.

Walked in on! Kraglin went bright red as he remembered the captain avoiding him after seeing the first mate in nothing but his underwear and undershirt.

“He don’t seem interested in yah?” Snak asked incredulously. “He punched a girl cuz she were talkin’ to yah!”

“Coulda been some other reason,” Kraglin whined. “Coulda been…. It coulda…. There must be summin’ else it coulda been for!” Snak tilted his head, as though he were thinking of something else, then shook his head.

“Can’t think of nothing else for it tuh be!”

“It was six months ago! So much coulda changed since then!” Kraglin turned away and bent backwards slightly, arms around his head, pulling at the pins. Snak cringed.

“Well, least he was protective some time rather dan never,” he muttered, walking forward softly. “Yah wanna-”

“He probaly hates me by now!” Kraglin grumbled and walked away slightly, not noticing the kid trying to get the jumpsuit back before his pins got bent.

“Know what his favorite color is?” Snak asked before he remembered Yondu’s threats. Ah hell, it was more painful to watch the two dance around each other. He made his way to the table where the jacket project sat.

Kraglin shrugged.

“Red? Like ‘is eyes an’ the arrow? Or bright blue like ‘is skin?”

“This,” Snak said and tossed the spray painted buckle at Kraglin who caught it after a few bouncing attempts.

“Looks like tha’ ring ‘e got,” Kraglin said, turning it over in his fingers, investigating the shadows in, humorously, the same way Yondu had just two weeks earlier. “An’ ‘is favorite trinket.”

“Look in the mirror, Krag,” Snak said.

"Why?"

"Just do, Kraglin." Snak glared. Kraglin, who had put it on the podium some time during his panic, picked it up.

“Da’s my face,” he said after a few seconds of glancing into the murk.

“What’s in that face?” Snak said, stepping closer. He always wondered if he had an empathic connection with his pins, and this was proving he did. He could almost feel the danger they were in the moment Kraglin worked it out.

“A nose?” Kraglin guessed and checked out his profile.

“And?” Snak grumbled.

“Um… my eyes?” he guessed again.

“What color are dem eyes?” Snak prompted.

“Well, dey’s a simple….” Kraglin’s eyes drew down to the buckle, then back to the mirror, then down. “Aw hell!” He dropped the mirror, which luckily didn’t shatter, and stumbled backward.

“You’s lyin’!” Kraglin gasped.

“Why’d he threaten tuh kill me if I told yah anythin’?” Snak offered. “If he’d lie, he wouldn’t threaten the only tailor just tuh make it seem like some kind’a truth.”

“You’s lyin’,” Kraglin persisted.

“An’ when he could hardly blush when he saw you half naked cuz most o’ the blood was nowhere near his face!” Snak pressed on. “Wanna know how he almost said the word feelings ‘bout you? Cuz he did ‘fore that callous on his heart changed the word tuh think.”

“You’s just sayin’ this tah make some kind of a fool outa me, an’ I ain’t gonna take it!” He made for the door.

“Oi! Don’t you walk off wid dat jumpsuit!” Snak snarled and practically pounced on the back of the first mate as he made his way to the door. “An’, still, I wasn’t lyin’.”

Kraglin glowered in front of his glossy eyes. He didn’t dare turn around to face the kid who seemed to still be insisting Kraglin’s captain loved him back.

 _Woah there, Kraglin_ he thought to himself as he slipped out of the unfinished outfit. _Love is a bit strong to start with._ Sure it wasn’t technically the start, but it sounded better like that. Made it seem less like he’d been pining after Yondu for the better part of a year. Until, of course, he realized the captain just wasn’t going to go for it. No chance of getting his hopes up. He doubted he’d be able to stay in the crew if he had to deal with the wispy air of rejection around him a second time.

“Have yoself a day, now,” Snak grumbled as the first mate took slipped out the door too inconspicuously for someone his size. The blind idiot. Must suck to have crap observational skills _that_ bad.


	6. Memory Brig

_ Kraglin’s background was no secret to any of the crew. The majority had been there when he was brought kicking and screaming to the brig. Taserface and Half-Nut carried the kid -- he’d been maybe 17 at the time -- through the halls with arms jabbing into the tendons between his chest and shoulder. The pain refused to go away even after he was unceremoniously tossed onto the grated floor of the holding cell. He rubbed at his armpits and held back a snuffle. He was damn near grown! He shouldn’t be teary-eyed over the slight aches filling the bones and what he managed to put on them. _

_ “So yah thought stealin’ from uh Ravager was a good idea, huh?” a gravelly voice spoke from beyond what the walls of the cell let Kraglin see.  _

_ He considered calling out, screaming for answers about the ship, the captain, the world he’d been pulled into off the streets. But the chill of the voice suggested panic wasn’t the best idea. So Kraglin sucked in a breath and steadied himself against eyes he knew must be watching from somewhere.  _

_ “Did manage it, didn’t I?” he said. Kraglin hardly heard a warble in the comment and congratulated himself slightly.  _

_ “Dat means yah got luck, not brains, kid,” the voice replied, somewhat closer now.  _

_ “That cap’n was wearing a fancy jacket and some shiny somethin’s in ‘is pocket. I needed food.” Kraglin shuffled from where he had been sitting to his knees before lifting himself to his feet.  _

_ “Still don’ mean yah smart.” The voice came into view. It was carried by a slightly shorter yet heavily built man. He was blue with blazing red eyes and a strip of the same protruding from his skull. Kraglin couldn’t place the face with anything other than the captain to whom the jacket pockets full of shinies belonged. _

_ “Still, got the slip on yah,” Kraglin rebutted and stuck his chin into the air. The captain’s brow furrowed at the defiance. _

_ “Kid, do yah know whos I am?” he asked, tilting his own chin up to match the startling height of the kid whose head nearly scraped the ceiling.  _

_ “You’s the cap’n I stole from,” Kraglin replied confidently. “And I knows you Ravagers are pirates or summin’ like that. Half what I got off uh yuh yah probably got off some other sap.” _

_ Yondu let out a puff of air over his lips in the closest thing he could get to a laugh. _

_ “You don’t know whos I am.” Kraglin shrugged to confirm. _

_ “Should I?” he mocked. Yondu seemed struck with disbelief before pursing his lips and whistling. Kraglin almost laughed at the note before he saw what followed it. The arrow practically vaporized in between his eyes with a red glow mimicking the captain’s furious glare. He gasped despite the air of confidence he was trying to scramble together.  _

_ “Name’s Yondu Udonta,” the captain snarled. Kraglin realized now would not be a good time to say he’d never actually even heard the name before, let alone gather enough information about it to react to it. Instead, he just breathed and kept his eyes fixed on the blaze in front of him. _

_ “Yah heard o’ me, kid?” Yondu pressed, taking a step forward. _

_ “Sure!” Kraglin gasped. “Yeah, course I ‘ave!” Yondu took a pleased sniff and let the arrow back of maybe a millimeter.   _

_ “And?” he pressed. _

_ “And…?” Kraglin began, then glanced a spot beyond the the arrow tip to the expectant gaze of this Yondu. “Um…”  _

_ Well, shit.  _

_ “We’ve heard tons down in dem streets. Hemria, the city I camp in-” _

_ “I know the name o’ the damn town!” Yondu snapped before nodded for Kraglin to continue. _

_ “We get stories, goin’ round in circles,” Kraglin muttered. “And… And one of dem stories… One of dem- Best if yah ask me- One of the best stories is ‘bout…” Ummmm. What sounded realistic?  _

_ How’d he get here? Kraglin would have laughed if it wasn’t him with death an centimeter from his temple. His life hinged on his ability to flatter a space pirate! _

_ “Bes’ one’s bout dis time we heard yah… um, ‘bout yah killin’ a whole scion of Kree wid dat arrow of yers,” Kraglin said with a rush. Was that too far fetched? Yondu began to laugh. Shit it probably was. _

_ “That’s the best yah heard down there?” Yondu chuckled. “Kid, you’s got no idea what I’s done if yah think killin’ some Kree folk is that impressive.” _

_ Kraglin definitely did not stare in shock or awe. It was… something. Should be something else to cause the staring. _

_ “Yah hear ‘bout that time I robbed one uh de most secure banks with nothin’ but a mining ship and mah arrow, and a couple o’ guys?” Kraglin could only shake his head. “Ain’t heard dat one?  _ Dat  _ one’s mah favorite. I’ll have tuh tell yuh sometime.”  _

_ Kraglin shrugged slightly, his eyes still embarrassingly wide like some toddler face to face with a dream billowing into life. His jaw was slack, but he really couldn’t focus enough to notice that his mouth was slightly open.  _

_ “Oh!” Yondu exclaimed. “Yuh ever heard that one ‘bout saving Stakar?” Yondu chuckled. “Ooh dat was a day tuh remember! He managed tuh get hisself caught in a trap and me and mine hadda go down and rescue ‘im like uh damsel!” Yondu bent over laughing at the memory.  _

_ “Cap’n?” A voice called gruffly through the door. It was Taserface. Yondu stood up straight and turn his lips back to a leer with two breaths.  _

_ “What is it, Taserface?” He snapped. “Can’t yah see I’m interrogatin’’ the prisoner here?” Taserface snarled and approached anyway, glowering in at Kraglin through the bars.  _

_ “Yah want me tuh do it, sir?” He snarled. His face was either supposed to look like it somehow came out of a fire, or that’s what happened. No matter the cause, it would have been ugly to the point of humor if Kraglin wasn’t on the other side of Taserface’s malintent.  _

_ “Yuh tryin’ tuh tell me I can’t interrogate mine own prisoners now?” Yondu gasped in mock scandal. “Have I been upsurred now, Taserface? Yuh duh captain now?” Taserface dropped his chin a bit and lowered his leer.  _

_ “Nah, Cap’n,” Taserface muttered dejeticly. “Anythin’ I can do fuh yuh?”  _

_ “Get outta mah brig,” Yondu snarled. Taserface nodded and muttered under his breath as he clomped away. He spat, attempting to be surreptitious but it didn’t work in any way.  _

_ “Now, where was we?” Yondu quipped in a sudden flurry of cheery grins now only just covering the blood lust in his red eyes. Here was a toy. Here he would play.  _

_ “Ah right, yah and yah half brain.” _

_ “I thought we was still talkin’ bout yer multitudes o’ successes?” Kraglin countered. Yondu snarled at him now. _

_ “Half brain fo’ sure,” he muttered. _

_ “Interrogatin’ for sure,” Kraglin imitated. A quick whistle reminded Kraglin that the infernal arrow was still poised between his eyes. _

_ “You’s got some snark in yah, kid,” Yondu growled. Kraglin shook, wondering if that was a good thing. “An slim fingers. Yah could be a Ravager if yah learned some respect.” _

_ Kraglin looked past the arrow, his eyes going wide at the proposition. _

_ “If I steal what I stole off yah back, will yah stop holdin’ it ‘gainst me?” Kraglin asked. _

_ “Sure, if yah manage it in the first short standard,” Yondu offered and whistled his arrow back to his side.  _

_ “Can I get outta this brig an’ get to work, then, sir?” Kraglin asked, tilting his head slightly in flattery to the pissy captain.  _

_ Yondu sniffed, but seemed content and opened the door of the holding cell. _

_ “Yah got a short standards,” Yondu repeated. “So tha’s about five tuh ten jobs, dependin’.” Kraglin rubbed his wrists as he left the cell. A short standard was about a month, if he remembered correctly. He had to get at least 10 good bobbles and a titanium ring out of a month. This should be fun. _


	7. Killing Snak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snak is getting tired of this game. Especially once he became the ball.

“How come Kraglin’s avoidin’ me?”

Shit.

Snak pulled the most innocent face he could before turning to face the captain.

“Huh?” he asked as politely as he could.

“Why. Is. Kraglin. Avoiding. ME?” Yondu snarled.

Shit.

“Could just be he’s startin’ to notice how much he really likes yuh and can’t handle bein’ round yuh,” Snak offered carefully. Yondu was purple already, his red eyes like flame framed by shimmering eyelids.

“An’ why do I doubt that?” He asked.

“Trust issues? For one?”

In retrospect, joking at a time like that was a bad idea. The arrow wound nicking his bicep would serve as a good reminder. Snak grasped at the sudden blood bubbling through his fingers.

“Sir, I honestly don’t know why he’d avoid yah,” Snak said calmly as Yondu tried steadying his breath.

“Get that fixed,” he huffed and gestured in the direction of Snak’s arm, “an’ finish mah jacket.” Yondu stomped out of the room, arrow trailing him like a really violent conscience.

Snak shook his head and closed the workroom door only seconds before Kraglin poked his head out of the storage closet. Snak jumped with a stifled scream.

“What in hell are yah hidin’ in mah closet for?” Snak asked.

“He really threatened yah,” Kraglin breathed, staring at the blood seeping through Snak’s fingerings. “He actually threatened yah!”

Snak rolled his eyes. If this was how the two were going to be romantic now, Snak would probably be dead by the end of the week and offered to someone like a cat offers a mouse.

“Yeah, he really threatened me, and he really just missed an artery by maybe a centimeter, so if yah don’t mind, I gotta get mah arm sewn up!”

 

* * *

 

“How come Cap’n’s avoidin’ me?”

Again?

“How come you two can’t just talk tuh each other like normal people? How come you gotta keep me playin’ messenger like some middle schooler?” Snak shook his head and bent over the leather work he was sewing together. The jacket needed to be done fairly soon and this game of telephone was losing its cuteness and quick.

“Why. Is. The. Captain. Avoiding. ME?” Kraglin yelled.

REALLY?

“He’s in love wid yah, an’ neither of yah have the emotional competence to act on it!”

In retrospect, he deserved the black eye. And the slowly closing the workroom door on his way out to go to the med wing. Again. He DID NOT deserve that god damn jump.

“He’s that worried ‘bout this?” a voice called from the storage closet door.

“DAMN IT!” Snak smacked the wall with his good arm. “Damn. it. Can yah _please_ just talk to ‘im for yah kill me?” Yondu muttered under his breath and tramped off.

“An’ stop hidin’ in mah storage closet!” Snak yelled after him.

 

* * *

 

Doc gave Snak an estimated time of death about two weeks in advance. Two weeks had passed since and the date loomed more and more probable as the two never stopped dancing around each other, playing catch with Snak’s rapidly declining health.

Cause of death was listed as either arrow wound to the chest, bleeding out, or a heart attack after the five-hundredth jump scare as either Kraglin or Yondu poked their head out of some odd spot in Snak’s wing.

“Yer supposed tuh keep crew from dyin’, not predictin’ how we go,” Snak grumbled as Doc stitched up a new cut on his stomach.

“An’ how am I supposed tuh help here?” she asked, her calloused fingers pawing over the wound none too gently. After the first while of having to come up with odd stories of pissing Yondu off, Snak had given up and told Doc what was happening. Hence the time and cause of death predictions.

Snak glanced around the med bay. A few gurneys lay side by side, held together by handcuffs which were typically reserved for operations when they couldn’t afford anesthetics. Snak nodded to them.

“Could I borrow two pairs o’ ‘em?”

Doc cracked a smile. “Just don’t let ‘em keep ‘em too long.”

“Ew!” Snak groaned. “Nah, I’ll bring ‘em back soon as they fess up.”

 

* * *

 

“I swear if yah whistle at me, yah gonna have nothin’ left but tuh chew yer hand off tuh get outta these cuffs,” Snak snarled as hhe clamped the metal closed around Yondu’s flexing wrists. They bound his hands together behind his back and a painful twist which Snak promised to only slightly revel in. The chains of the cuffs were then cuffed to a main support beam for good measure.

“Once I’m outta these, then,” Yondu hissed, “I’ll whistle, and I’ll let it take forever for yah blood tuh drain. You’ll live fuh weeks for yah finally die.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” Snak mumbled as he left the captain sitting in the corner of the workroom. “Any minute now…”

Kraglin’s jumpsuit was finally finished, so a final fitting was, of course, in order.

“Snak?” Kraglin called. Snak had shut the workroom door. “Yah in the med bay again?” Snak turned and glared at Yondu, finger threateningly held over his lips in a demand of silence.

“Nah, I’m in the workroom!” Snak yelled back and gathered a second set of cuffs. The clinking metal was cold under his fingers and he slipped the chains between his digits in cool anticipation. “Come on in!”

Kraglin’s steps were loud enough to trace his every pace, the halting suspicion as he drew closer to the closed door. The grind of his heel as he almost turns away.

“I can hear yah hangin’ out by mah door, now get in here!” Snak called, sidling up to the doorway, cuffs open and poised. He could almost hear Kraglin’s shrug, and then the grinding of the door handle as it turned.

The door swung open. With a hiss, Snak launched forward. Kraglin jumped and almost screeched. His fingers flew to his waist for a blade. Snak had anticipated. The cuffs caught Kraglin’s wrists before his fingers could catch the handle of a knife. Snak almost dragged the first mate to the ground as his jump landed.

“What the hell?” Kraglin yelled and pulled at the cuffs. He looked around for conspirators. It must be a mutiny. His eyes fell on Yondu who sat dejectedly in a corner, legs splayed out in front of him. He had moved and tensed when Snak moved to capture Kraglin, and now was crouched, snarling at the teen as he dragged Kraglin to the opposite side of the room, chaining him there.

“What the hell?” Yondu snarled and almost whistled. Snak pointed at him and the attempt diminished.

“You two ain’t movin’ till you’ve had a talk,” Snak declared and sat on the podium in the center. “I ain’t lettin’ yah go till you’s done.”


	8. Trinket Trolling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drunk Yondu is a very different Yondu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I really thought this would be done by now but I guess not! Anyway, thanks for all the kudos and comments!

_It’s rare to make Bridge crew in under three short standards, even a single long standard, more commonly referred to as a year. But Kraglin, Yondu wanted to deny the kid everything for his stunt when they met. Still, the weedy little street urchin had some fingers and some brain cells. He made math look easy despite not having ever properly learned it. He learned a new language when they went to a planet with no translatable tongues. He had even pickpocketed Stakar when Yondu was visibly pissed off with the admiral._

_It was a shock to Kraglin and Yondu alike when the crew supported the kid becoming bridge crew after a single short standard. It was a shock to no one else._

_“Cap’n?” Kraglin said cautiously coming to stand by the captain’s control console. Yondu was out cold, an empty bottle of some sort of booze dangling precariously from his blue fingers._

_“Cap’n” Kraglin prompted again. No response but a bubbly snort and grumble. Kraglin shrugged and reached into his pocket. In it, he found the last trinket he needed to repay the captain. Sure it was a short standard late, but Yondu said he didn’t need to pay anymore after salvaging a job from the ruins of an isolated language._

_But Kraglin had decided he’d keep to his word, now. He had the chance to, so might as well. The bobble in his pocket was proof._

_He slipped it out and placed it carefully on the armrest of the console and wandered back to the charts where the nav director plotted points past stars._

 

* * *

 

_“...Hell’s this?” the captain slurred as he woke up. Alone and cold in the middle of an abandoned bridge. His arm had swiped the bobble from the console and he had to stoop to pick it back up again, dropping the bottle in the process. Damn lucky it didn’t shatter or it would rain glass to the lower decks. They were close enough to mutiny as always._

_His fingers brushed against the little thing. It was soft and cold and small. It fit right into the palm of the captain’s hand as he lifted it. So cute. It glimmered in the starlight streaming in through the observation port. He stroked it gently._

_The closing of a door jarred him and he almost dropped the precious thing._

_“Who’s tha…!?” Yondu slurred and whirled in his chair. His head took a few seconds to follow and it swirled around angrily. The fluttery figure of Kraglin swam around, backlit by the motion detecting lights on the upper deck of the bridge. “Kraglin?”_

_“Cap’n,” Kraglin said and beat his chest twice._

_“Kraggles!” Yondu almost cheered, then twisted his hands into the air with a stretch, the bobble gripped in his fingers. “Thank you… th- thhhhh” Yondu got distracted by the sputtering of his tongue as he spoke. “Thhhhhh!”_

_Kraglin rubbed his ear in attempts to recall if they’d actually heard the captain_ thank _him._

_“Cap’n?” Kraglin moved closer as Yondu twisted restlessly, thhhing all the time._

_“Thhhhhhhanks!” he almost squealed. At the very least it was un-Yondu like. At the most, it was… Kraglin blushed. Kinda cute and endearing._

_“You’re welcome, sir,” Kraglin muttered, his ears turning red at the tips. He turned to leave._

_“Kraggles! Kraggles! Kraggles!” Yondu called and tried to stand. Kraglin rushed back as the captain almost fell. In fact, he did fall, just half into Kraglin’s arms and half sliding onto the control console armrest._

_“Cap’n, hold still,” Kraglin grumbled and tried to shift the squirming captain back into his seat._

_“Why?” Yondu asked with a pout._

_“Because,” Kraglin huffed, straining at Yondu’s weight, “the crew might come back and see me hanging over yah like this. They’ll start rumors in seconds!” Yondu grinned, not quite sober or hungover enough to leer yet._

_“Is tha’ sush a bad thhhhhhhh-” Yondu attempted to husk before going cross-eyed to stare at the spit bubbling as he devolved to thhhing again._

_Kraglin grumbled to himself and dragged the captain into his chair, sweating from the effort. On second thought, it was also likely Yondu’s spit with all this babbling._

_“Did yah get me th-thhhuh babble?” Yondu asked, waving the hand clenched around the trinket._

_“Yes, I did, Cap’n,” Kraglin confirmed. Yondu smiled and damn near chirped with glee. Then, with his empty hand (when had that gotten to be empty? He wondered for a moment), he reached around Kraglin’s neck and pulled his face close._

_“Thhhhanks,” he slurred and nosed gently at Kraglin’s nose. Kraglin fought the urge to question his captain’s sanity, as well as the urge to just kiss him. Hadn’t he read somewhere that Centenarians see kissing as a battle strategy? Kraglin just let the captain nuzzle him for a few more seconds before he pulled back._

_“Why didn’t yah nuzzle ba’?” Yondu mumbled. Kraglin swallowed, now very much red. He glanced around at the empty room, staring often towards the door like the second he turned from it, a lower deck would saunter in and spread this story like wildfire._

_Kraglin bent down in front of the grumbling captain which picked at the trinket distractedly, avoided all of Kraglin’s attempts to re engage him. Until, of course, Kraglin scooped his slim fingers under the captain’s chin and pulled their faces together really close, just letting their noses brush._

_Yondu giggled. An odd sound, coming from a Ravager captain, but still cute and endearing. Then he began nuzzling again. Just soft, gentle tugs at the skin, his breath tickling along Kraglin’s. Kraglin nosed back, as gently as he could. Yondu’s breath hitched and he leaned his forehead against the younger man._

_Kraglin could see the appeal. The wisps of air passing over his cheekbones, his cheeks, fluttering past his lips were soft like butterfly kisses all along his face. The nose pressed softly, gently, entirely un-Yondu like yet so entirely genuine Yondu. His own nose traced tantalizing patterns over Yondu’s upturned face, so pliable under the flutters of his breath._

_They sat like this for almost a minute, just sharing air and tracing stories into their faces. The shadows of the words clung to the skin even after the contact passed. Eventually Yondu dipped off into a drunken slumber, his fingers loose around the gem studded trinket. Kraglin gently pried it out and placed it on the armrest._

 

* * *

 

_“Hell’s this?” Yondu snarled. His head ached. He nearly smashed an empty bottle that had ended up on the ground. And now there was a trinket sitting sticky on the control console armrest. This hangover was going to be one of the worst. He could feel it in the pounding of his skin. He shut his eyes against whatever memories may come._

_First, and most easily, were the ones he thought he’d drowned. He pushed them away with a practiced grunt and all to fast rising from his chair. There. Now the throbbing in his head could block_ those _out._

_“Cap’n!” Kraglin hissed as Yondu lost his balance. The kid grasped the captain’s arm to keep him from falling. Yondu collapsed back into the chair, glaring up at the kid’s wide eyes._

_Shit._

_There was the memory he’d tuck away forever._

_“Drunk me ain’t me, kid,” he snarled and grasped the trinket._

_Kraglin’s eyes went from concerned to questioning to comprehending resignment. It darted to hurt as the trinket struck the observation port, the starlight wheeling in it’s gem studded body. It hit the ground with a clang._

_“You don’ owe me nothin’ boy,” he growled. “So don’t keep gettin’ me dese trinkets.” Kraglin nodded and backed up to a respectful distance. He hit his chest twice and then returned to going over the storage numbers._

_Kraglin didn’t see the trinket the next day. He never saw it again until Yondu smacked it back onto the control console armrest and told everyone it was his favorite and he’d kill anyone who touched it. Kraglin never mentioned the trinket again, except if he knew the context of its delivery were not to be questioned._


	9. Remembered Lines

“How long’s this been goin’ for?” Snak asked. Kraglin and Yondu glanced at each other over the teen between them. They strained against their chains but really it was pointless. Snak had given up on letting them do this on their own terms. He rather enjoyed being alive. 

“Few months,” they both grumbled, then shared a look again. Snak caught the knowing glance and shook his head.

“Nuh-uh! You ain’t lyin’ ‘bout this!” He stood and paced as much as he could. Yondu had recently sprained the kid’s ankle.

Kraglin looked at Yondu who gave a defeated nod.

“Couple years now…” they admitted glumly. 

“And why hasn’t the two of you gotten this outta the way in all these coupl’a years?” Snak growled.

“Well,” Kraglin said. “There was that one time…” Yondu looked up. There was only one time and he didn’t want Snak to know it.

“That was that one time, and Snak don’t need tuh hear it!” he snapped. 

“Well, it ended rather indefinitely but I thought it was pretty clear and let the matter drop for a long standard or two,” Kraglin explained.

“How was that ending indefinite?” Yondu asked incredulously. “I threw the damn thing away!”

“Yeah, but then yah brought it back an’ told everyone it were yer favorite trinket. Excuse me for gettin’ mixed messages outta that!” Kraglin curled his legs up and looked away.

“This ‘bout the trinket? Cap’n’s favorite?” Snak asked wide eyed. 

Yondu snarled. “No shit, kid!” 

Snak shook his head in disbelief. 

“An’ those time yah punched all de people who actually showed an interest in me?” Kraglin asked. “I hardly remember ‘em, since I was mostly drunk, but I know you’s done it a few times now.”

Yondu nodded glumly.

“Sure, I’ve beat ‘em if they look like they’re gonna, yuh know,” Yondu trailed off and turned purple. Hot lines trailed patterns he’d almost managed to forget. How had he failed that one little task so miserably? 

“Cause you were jealous?” Kraglin asked.

“Sure I mighta been!” Yondu snapped, glaring at Snak who was now twirling the key to the cuffs in his fingers. 

“Were yah?” Snak asked.

“Yes. Okay? I was.” Yondu spat.

“You’s are impossible,” Snak muttered and paced back to the podium. “You’s both like each other, so why don’t yah just call it a day?” 

“Cause…” They both started, then drifted off. Both turned a bright something, red or purple depending on skin tone, and then bit their lips and looked away. Yondu desperately wanted to cover his nose. It was practically twitching at the memories he’d hidden from it. But his hands were in cuffs.

“Lower deck crew?” Offered Kraglin.

“Accusations o’ favoritism?” Offered Yondu.

“Mutiny?” They both said. 

“Like yah haven’t had one o’ those before!” Snak growled. Hell, he’d been there maybe three years now? And he’d seen a good mutiny and twice as many rumblings any time they stayed with clean noses for too long.

Neither Yondu nor Kraglin wanted to admit it, but the kid had a point. They’d gone through at least a dozen mutinies caused by anything from broken glass to a failed job ending in mass casualties and major blows to their financial stability. A scuffle about who the captain was sleeping with probably wasn’t the worst they were ever going to see. Still…

“Code?” Yondu was actually asking. He couldn’t remember if there had been anything in the Code against captains sleeping with crew. 

“Sentiment means extortion?” Kraglin promoted. Not an answer, but still a damn good reason. 

“Exactly!” Yondu agreed. He’d have pointed if his hands were free but no. “If I’s get more attached, or people find out, they’s can use ‘im against me!”

Snak tilted his head back and glared into the ceiling. He’d have prayed allowed, but Yondu would only claim that God was probably in support of the relationship staying the way it was.

“You’s been dancin’ ‘round each other for two weeks now since yah started realizin’ this ain’t goin’ away!” Snak barked. “An’ it’s hurtin’ productivity now! We hasn’t had a good job this whole time with the two uh you’s refusing to be in the same room!” Yondu would have liked to refuse the statement but was finding it difficult to think of anything to support his claim. Kraglin’s furrowed brow suggested the same predicament. 

“So if I unchain yah, wills yah kiss an’ make up?” Snak snarled. Yondu and Kraglin looked at each other, suddenly much more vibrant in their respective color than before.

“Don’t know if kiss is the right word, but…” Yondu said softly.

“Ew, just do it in yah own room, not mah storage closet!” Snak huffed and pressed a button on the key. The cuffs clicked open and Yondu and Kraglin stood rubbing at their joints. They left the cuffs on the ground, much to Snak’s ease of mind, and shuffled away awkwardly.

“Dear god…” Snak muttered before sneaking up behind them and pressing them together with a sudden flurry of strength. 

They caught each other awkwardly, half carrying the other, half carried themselves. Their faces grew inexplicably close and this time there was no booze on Yondu’s breath. Kraglin’s eyes were just as wide and just as stunning as Yondu remembered them. He ventured a smile.

Kraglin watched, and suddenly the eyes next to his were just as crinkled with uncharacteristic mirth as they had shimmered in distant hopeful memories. 

Then, softly, ever so slowly, Yondu pressed his nose to the tip of Kraglin’s. Softly, ever so slowly, Kraglin traced a line up Yondu’s cartilage, then bone, then gently down across his cheeks. His breath fluttered on blue skin. Yondu shivered and lay his forehead against Kraglin’s and dipped his nose to the crook of the younger’s mouth, softly breathing. The lines seemed to glow with sudden recollection.

Snak was smart. Snak realized kissing probably wasn’t what a centenarian was going to do. He was not, however, prepared to watch the tender sweep of noses across cheeks softer than fresh snow between his captain and first mate, the two people he’s seen kill most violently and often. He cleared his throat. 

Yondu and Kraglin pulled apart suddenly and stared at the kid before glancing at each other and chuckling. Snak was almost redder than Kraglin at that point!

“Alright, alright, we’re leaving,” Yondu chuckled. “And yah better have that jacket done by tomorrow! I’mma need it!” 

Snak muttered imitations of the captain to himself as their footsteps receded. He stroked at his face gingerly before drawing the fingers away roughly and resuming his work, humming a very loud and not gentle beat. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah the end has come! I'll probably right other fics, but the first is now finished! May come back to Snak again, may not... 
> 
> Thank you all for reading!!!


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